Sunlight or Skylight

The least expensive way to start is to use light that is provided to you for free.  Going outdoors and using daylight seems like a simple task but the pitfalls are many and you should read these cautions carefully.  Since you cannot control this light you will need to use it wisely.

You will need to study each situation and then 'flow with it'. Since you cannot control it you will need to let it control you.  You will have to pick the time and place where the light is working.  In future lessons you will learn how to overcome things like noonday sun.  Until then you will have to shoot either very early or later in the day.  If you have a model that you can 'grab' at any time (a wife or girlfriend), you can take advantage of hazy and 'slightly' overcast days to shoot.

Before you decide to go out and spend a small fortune on electronic lighting systems (strobes), keep this in mind:
Most of the professionals use expensive studio lighting equipment because it increases the ease of their productivity NOT because it improves their ability to sell a set.  ALL of the publishers I know are tired of getting 'studio' looking shoots and appreciate seeing more outdoor and 'natural' looking sets.

The Golden Hours

Although this lighting technique is hardly a secret among professionals, it is rarely used by neophytes.  There is a good reason.  The types of girls that you are most likely to find are not the types to 'get up early to work'.  They are the same type that will want to get off before sundown to get ready for the party they have that night.  Morning shoots outdoors are likely to be better for privacy since fewer people are likely to wander into your shoot, but you will probably find that you will need to shoot late afternoons because of working with young models who do not like to get up before 10AM.

After you have chosen your time of day to shoot (or it has chosen you) you should go to the location where you have planned to shoot at that time of day and see how the light falls in different areas. Until you learn 'flash fill' or 'reflector fill' with a tripod you will need to keep the sun behind you so that it will fall directly on the model.  Keep this in mind as you pick areas with a pleasing well composed background that will be lighted by direct sun.

The later in the day...the better the light but keep in mind that the last hour the light drops off fast in intensity and you will need to monitor your exposures closely.

Try to keep the light falling on all the important parts of the model.  A face or a nice set of breasts that fall into shadow are useless as a photograph for the Men's magazine or internet viewers. Try to keep the light falling on all the important parts of the model.  So not allow her breasts or crotch area to fall into shadow unless you actually plan it for affect.  Keep the light falling flat on her face to avoid ugly nose shadows or 'raccoon eyes'.  By keep her face into the sun you will need to help her for part of the shooting by either closing her eyes (if the pose is appropriate) or putting sunglasses on her.  You will not be able to keep her in sunglasses for the whole shoot.  Editors do not want all shots to be with sunglasses.  A trick is to tell her to keep her eyes closed until you are ready and then to open them just as you release the shutter.  Then have her close them again.  Hazy days will keep her from squinting too much and will make you less of a pariah than if you insist on torturing her by looking into the sun on every shot.

Remember that you will need to work quickly as the sun gets near the horizon.  It will drop off quickly in the last thirty minutes.

Hazy and Overcast Days

Perhaps even better lighting than that of the 'golden hour' can be obtained on hazy days.  While a hazy sun reduces contrast and many of the shadow problems you are likely to have, an extremely overcast day will create problems with low exposures and a color shift.  Another problem with trying to plan a shoot for a hazy sun is that you can rarely predict it and often the haze burns off as the day grows warmer. Be sure to buy and carry a 'warming filter' in your gadget bag (more about filters in the equipment lesson).  A slightly overcast day will not prevent you from shooting and after a while you will look forward to them. 

Overcast days will mean that you need to increase your exposure or your film speed.  Most publishers do not like fast films because of their heavy grain (very unflattering to nudes) and the lack of sharpness.  You will need to use a tripod if you are shooting slower speed films with a 35mm camera.  Or you can shoot the higher speed films if you use a larger format such as Hasselblad or other 120 film type camera.

Learning to work outdoors is very important toward your becoming a photographer that sells regularly. Even when you finally get your dream studio you will find that you can sell your sets quicker if you add an introduction of a few shots taken outdoors.  These magazines and the internet sites appeal to fantasies that men have.  Often when they see a girl on the street they wonder what she would look like naked.  By taking a few shots on the street with a fully clothed model, with perhaps a little flash of panties or other type of tease; you can show what the girl looks like if the viewer were to see her in public and then take him to her room for a 'closer look'.